74% iPad buyers were Mac owners, 66% had iPhones claims analyst

Apple may describe the iPad as a new segment, but are they also carving out a new audience for the company? According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, first-day sales of the new tablet don't seem to suggest that's the case. He interviewed 448 iPad early-adopters and discovered that 74-percent were existing Mac users and 66-percent had an iPhone. Just 4-percent expected the iPad to replace their existing computer, and only 1-percent thought it might replace their iPhone.

In fact, going by Munster's figures the real damage is being done to Amazon. Of the iPad buyers, 10-percent had considered picking up a Kindle instead, and of the 13-percent who already owned Kindles, 58-percent planned to replace the dedicated ereader with their new Apple tablet. Reading ebooks was the second most likely activity for iPad owners (38-percent), coming in behind web browsing which 74-percent said they planned to do with the device; meanwhile email came in at 34-percent, video consumption at 26-percent and games/apps at 18-percent. Munster has already more than doubled his expectations for iPad sales in 2010, from 2.7 million to 5.6 million.